Lowrider Librarian

Libraries and the Fight Against Terrorism Libraries can and should be an important weapon against terrorism.  "Librarians are soldiers in the war against ignorance!"  Racism is fundamentally ignorance which leads to hate.  This is a call out to all librarians to help end the ongoing terrorism against people of color in the US. People of color in the US live under a state of domestic terrorism.  This terrorism is conducted via many official channels.  The education system, law enforcement, healthcare, judicial system and other aspects of the state have been and are used against people of color in the US. The terrorism we experience on a daily basis meets ALL the criteria below:  "Domestic terrorism" means activities with the following three characteristics: Involve acts dangerous to human life that violate federal or state law; Appear intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by ...

Conversations With Skateboarders [2005: Reprinted from MaxM a subsidiary of Sleestak.net] Image is everything, at least thats what you see on tv, read in magazines, and hear on the radio. A cool image is something that has always been important, and always will be, but it bothers me when only one stereotypical image is portrayed as 'cool.' One image that bugs the shit out of me is the dressed in black, rock & roll Glam belt, drunk, dirty, ignorant idiot that is oftentimes used to characterize skateboarders. What is really sad is that our magazines support this type of image, offer no alternatives to impressionable kids, and encourage these stereotypes. Transworld does promote the image of skaters as wholesome jocks--which is just as bad, but I'm focusing on the aforementioned image in this writing. Here is an example of Thrasher's idea of a good way to gain skate time: Thrasher's Study Less page   [This page no longer exists--it was a coll...

Yes, that is a Grumpy T-shirt.   Here is a link to an short interview I did for a multicultural librarian graduate course: https://goo.gl/r93L4g These are the questions I covered:   Questions for 825 Interviews   1. Will you please introduce yourself to the class and briefly describe your current library and position as well as the path that led you to librarianship?   2. In this course, we are exploring how libraries can best meet “the recreational, cultural, informational, and educational needs of African American, Asian American, Latina/o, Native American, and bi/multiracial children, young adults, and adults.” In what ways does your racial/ethnic identity enable you to meet these needs in your library?   3. As a patron in libraries throughout your life, you have probably had both positive and negative experiences related to access and collections. How have these experiences shaped your work as a professiona...

I read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates in one sitting.  It was a decent book. Get this book for your library! So many people have already praised it for its great writing and incredible erudition.  I felt really let down after reading his book because I was expecting so much more. Mr. Coates is a good writer, but he is not a great writer.  His prose flows and I believe he has found his own voice.  However, the writing is not beautiful, nor is it creative or innovative in any manner. In my opinion the most important aspects of this book are his insights on the black body.   African Americans, after all, were considered products to be exploited for their value as slaves.  Their (and latino) bodies are still used in such a way in the prison industry as explicated so brilliantly in Michelle Alexander's seminal work, The New Jim Crow. He COMPLETELY neglects the fact that other ethnicities (besides black people) have race issues in the U...

The number one issue I encounter when dealing with racism on an organizational/institutional level is the lack of ability to put the organization's resources toward ending racism and the lack of diversity in the institution. Many US Organizations state they value "diversity."  What does that mean? Diversity, inclusion and equity aren't seen as an issue of sustainability for our organizations and institutions.   These issues are looked at like pinstriping on a sports car.  It seems they are not as important to our organizations as the engine, or even the tires of the car... Our nation will not survive if we do not deal with the issues of race that exist in our culture. Unconscious bias is built into most education, entertainment and other forms of information. We need teams of analysts to investigate these biases, analyze them, describe them for laypeople, and prescribe fixes for them.  We need these teams within our organizations and in general society. ...

Ever since the #Blacklivesmatter Bernie Sanders takeover in Seattle I have felt uncomfortable with my White liberal friends. In large part

Several things have occurred this year which have me thinking about leadership/governing structures and the need for a change in the current infrastructures of our organizations. Hierarchies often create situations where the lower valued (see above chart) people are alienated from their work because of a real lack of say or decision making. This then leads to: lack of initiative lack of innovation lack of interest lack of input from necessary input channels I am fully convinced that these new structures will come from outside of western culture.  Western culture has a white-supremacist patriarchy firmly established and seems to be bolstered by both the liberal and conservative factions of the us political system.  For this reason, I believe we must look outside of these systems and the traditions they are founded upon.